Returners fill Cheyney's Stephens with hope

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Cheyney’s Dominique Stephens doesn’t like to make predictions, but when the other head basketball coaches in the PSAC picked his Wolves to finish dead last in the Eastern Division standings for 2012-13, he decided to make an exception.

“I know one thing for sure, this group will not be in last place,” Stephens said.

It’s easy to understand why expectations are so low because,by all accounts, last season was a calamity. Through heavy graduation losses and eligibility issues, Cheyney went from 19 wins the year before to just four. And the team’s conference record dipped to 3-20, which is an unheard of plummet from a program with the kind of tradition CU has in basketball.

Stephens was forced to put a disturbing number of walk-ons into his playing rotation, and the Wolves wound up dropping 18 of their last 20 outings, 10 of the final 11, and failed to win a real road game all season.

But with a couple of proven returnees – including senior guard Jason Sabb, the reigning PSAC scoring champ – a few others who have regained eligibility, and a slew of new recruits and transfers, Stephens feels much more comfortable about the direction the program is headed.

“Last season was tough,” he admitted. “Walk-ons can only take you so far, even though those guys competed. But now we have more guys that can close out games.

“Jason is my top guy but one of the things we did this year was to get him some help.”

Sabb poured in 20.3 points per game and was sixth in the conference in shooting accuracy (.482 percent). And another returning force is forward Deshawn Curtis (6-foot-6), who chipped in 7.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, and really came on late in the season.

Two others – swingman Rashaad Slappy (6-4) and center Jayvon Beaty (6-8) – are also back in the mix. Both missed most of the 2011-12 campaign with eligibility issues, but Stephens says: “that is all behind us.” Slappy averaged 14.5 points and 6.2 rebounds in six games before he was shelved.

“He was a big piece we missed last season,” Stephens acknowledged.

Cheyney was last in the PSAC in rebounding and assists, but Stephen’s and his staff attempted to address those deficiencies with a large group of newcomers. All were recruited and none are walk-ons.

The most promising of the group could be freshman point guard Brandon Norfleet (6-4), but the list also includes three big men: Harcum College transfer Keith Mobley (6-8), and freshmen Christopher Burney (6-7) and Calvin Brown (6-9), who just happens to be Stephens’ nephew.

It will, undoubtedly, be a challenging season for Norfleet, who will have to do a lot of one the job training. Another freshman – Eugene Lett (5-8) – and sophomore backup Mike Drinks (5-10) are also candidates at the point.

If Norfleet can grow into the job, and the new big guys can contribute on the glass, don’t be surprised if Cheyney flips the script once again, and threatens to win 18-20 games.